Kejriwal alleges govt inflated costs to justify rising water bill

Aam Admi party convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday alleged that the Delhi government, in connivance with private firms, showed inflated costs of water treatment and upped magnitude of wastage to increase tariff and implement a Rs.520-crore project to replace water pipelines in the city.

“There is a clear nexus between the company (which supplies treated water) and the Sheila Dikshit government,” alleged Kejriwal.

Elaborating on the alleged ‘scam’, he asked how Sonia Vihar water treatment plant, which was set up by the French company, Degremont, could claim to produce 140 million gallons per day (MGD) of treated water when it is only provided 48 by Delhi government.

“Artificially they are inflating the production because when they inflate the production, they can claim 140 MGD of water produced, 48 MGD was supplied and rest of it leaked,” he said.

The city government has prepared a Rs.520-crore project to replace the existing pipeline in Malviya Nagar to reduce Non Revenue Water (NRW) — the water which go waste — from Sonia Vihar plant.

“And the project is awarded to the same company. Now, the financial burden to the tune of Rs.1.6 lakh per person will be passed on to the residents of Malviya Nagar,” he said.

Delhi Jal Board (DJB), however, rejected the claim and said points raised by Kejriwal were inaccurate and due diligence has been taken in the project.

“Arvind Kejriwal has raised the issue of NRW, which is the difference between the water produced by a utility and the water billed to its consumers. This is quantifiable. In Delhi this includes physical losses, the difference between metered supply and provisional billing, etc.”